WRITER'S LIFE

At the University of Toronto, Kate won 2 Norma Epstein Creative Writing Awards before moving to Australia to finish her degree in culture and creative writing at the University of Melbourne where she graduated in the English program with Honors and won their Experimental Writing Award. While in school, she also won an Australia Council Creative Development Grant to create her first multimedia play, mOTHERland, a Best of Fringe Award, and Melbourne International Comedy Fest Monologue Award.

Kate has created plays, television programs and been the senior creative on several high profile branding projects including the HP rebrand, The Whitney Museum membership re-brand, the Sony Rewards campaign and a creating/producing/hosting a series of weekly branded fashion and performance events at Soho House New York.

While in the acting program at the Juilliard School of Drama (Dip. Acting) She won the Interarts Award, a Summer Projects Grant and Interarts Grant to finish mOTHERland. She also published Sinta of Jakarta, a verse play with Prism Press in Vancouver, and had mOTHERland produced at the Tarragon theater in Toronto and at Studio 301 at the Juilliard.

The first workshop of her full length musical Pictures of Dorian Gray written with Julliard colleague composer Lance Horne was invited to the National Music Theater Conference at the ONeill Playwrights Center, and received 20 hour workshop at Manhattan Theater Club. Their two short operas, A Suite for Fat Girls and Club Kid Cantata premiered at the Clarke Studio Theater at Lincoln Center. Dorian Gray is in development with Second Stage Theater their musical Back in the Day was commissioned and performed at the Cape Cod Rep as part of their mainstage season.

Based on her performances in comedy clubs around the USA and Canada, "Kate's ChinkORama:featuring the Chinkorama dancers" premiered at Here Theater Center, then played at the NY Fringe Fest, Buddies in Bad Times Theater in Toronto, the HBO Time Warner Workspace in L.A., Joe's Pub at the New York's Public Theater, the Brava Theater Center S.F. and continues to tour the country. Birth of a nASIAN, a cycle of monologues and songs was part of the Jerome Foundation's New Work Series was workshopped in Minneapolis, Toronto, at La Mama ETC, and in readings at Asian Theater Workshop's Summerfest at Mark Taper Forum L.A, before going on to being performed at New World Theater in Massachussetts, the Vancouver Comedy Festival, the Women in Theater Conference Toronto, ConWorks in Seattle, OutNorth in Anchorage, MACLA, CCE Portland and the Comedy Central Theater L.A where it was taped for their online portal. It was also performed as a special event for the Smithsonian Institute's Asian Heritage Month Programs.

Her play about Asian Adoptees, The Phoenix Rides a Skateboard was commissioned by Theater Direct Canada, was produced at Theater Passe Muraille in Toronto and was published by Schillingford Press and excerpted for a monologue book called Shakin the Stage for young actors. It was also produced in Romania By Nottara theater and is a popular play produced in high schools.

Kate was commissioned by the Center Theater Group/Mark Taper Forum P.L.A.Y. program to write Dinner 101, a multimedia play for high school age actors which was produced by CTGLA at Birmingham high school's Arts Center. She was also invited to be part of the Writer's Workshop/Lab CTGLA where she wrote "Hungry Ghosts". Her play "re:Mix't: was commissioned by East West Player and was performed throughout LA County schools. Her play "Happy Lucky Golden Tofu Panda Dragon Good Time Fun Fun Show" was premiered at La Mama ETC, played to sold out crowds at the NY Fringe Festival and was made into a movie which premiered at the Soho International Film Festival and played festivals around the country including The Broad Humor Festival in Los Angeles where it won Best Feature.

Her observations on Asian American youth and pop culture, 25 Things you should know about Asian American Youth, were the centerpiece for Time Warner's Asians in Media's Annual Conference and Panel, and were carried in dozens of National media marketing and advertising publications in an abridged version called 10 Things You Should Know About Asian American Youth.

She has twice been the keynote speaker and performance at the Smithsonian Institute's Freer Sackler museum of Asian America for A/PI Heritage month as well as the Time Warner Companies annual A/PI Awareness Panel. She is also part of the Playwrights Lab at the Center Theater Group, Mark Taper Forum.

Fellowships and AwardsShe has received writing fellowships from The Asian American Arts Alliance, The Asian Women's Giving Circle, The Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation, The Patsylu Fund for Women in Music, the National Performance Network, The Ontario Arts Council, The NEA, The Jerome Foundation, The Mark Taper Forum, The Australia Council, The Canada Council and the Urban Arts Initiative amongst others.

Selected Articles

A Magazine, 2000 "I chink Therefore I am"THIS Magazine, Cover story 2002 "10 Things You Shouldn't say to your Asian friend.."BUST Magazine 2002 "Best in Cho"On and Off Magazine "The Reclamasian of the Broadway Musical"Newswire/PRO Hip Hop/AdWeek "Ten things every brand should know about Asian Youth."RICE PAPER Magazine Cover Story Slanty Eyed MamaShe also maintains a blog on API issues

click the image to see Kate's writing CV

Creator/Exec Prod.
Pay per view and DVD release
Live tour
Radio show on National Lampoon Radio

DANCE YOUR ASS OFF

Co-Creator/Exec. Prod
Highest rated premiere on Oxygen TV
Sold as a format to 30 countries
2nd highest rated show in all of China
Highest online user interactivity in its two seasons on Oxygen

Kate Co-Created and Executive Produced the ground breaking show Dance Your Ass Off. Sold as a format to 30 countries, it was Oxygen's highest rated series premiere and set records for user interacticity on the network's website. The show gave people with pounds to shed a professional dance partner and each week they performed a different dance style, fully costumed and fully rehearsed. Their judges combined dance scores with total percentage weight lost to determine episode winners. We had great success with the contestants reporting 90 percent kept the weight off and most have kept dancing well after the show ended!

CACHE CRAZE

Cache Craze was a reality competition show for kids and their parents which ran for 2 seasons on YTV and Disney XD. It was a super fun, high octane adventure show that sent kids out into different environments (forests, beaches, city centers) to search for Geocaches. The locations of the geocaches on a digital map were revealed after the teams competed in kooky challenges. We used Augmented Reality technology to trigger the caches to release points, obstacles and advantages to the players. Hosted by comedian Ryan Horwood, Kate created executive produced and wrote the show.